IT'S WITNESS – BY A WHISKER

Silent Witness, BBC1, 9pm – The BBC1 crime drama returned for its 14th – yes, 14th – series with 5.877 million viewers, a 20.9% share of the audience between 9pm and 10pm.

It narrowly had the edge over the first of a new run of Lynda La Plante's crime drama, Above Suspicion: Deadly Intent, which opened with 5.495 million viewers on ITV1, a 19.5% share, with another 326,000 on ITV1 HD.

RATINGS WATCHING LIVE

Stargazing Live, BBC2, 8pm – The first of three nights of stargazing, presented by Dara O Briain and professor Brian Cox, began with 3.393 million viewers, an 11.7% share, between 8pm and 9pm, with another 203,000 viewers on the BBC HD channel.

Stargazing Live easily had the better of the second episode of Channel 4's Famous and Fearless. The celebrity extreme sports show hosted by Chris Evans and Clare Balding had 1.472 million viewers, a 5.1% share, with another 200,000 on Channel 4 +1.

This was down around a quarter from its Sunday night debut, when it had 2.088 million viewers (8%) on Channel 4 and 336,000 on Channel 4 +1.

Stargazing Live was BBC2's most popular show of the night, beating another new series, Great British Railway Journeys, fronted by Michael Portillo, into second place. The documentary averaged 2.442 million viewers, a 9.8% share, between 6.30pm and 7pm.

Yet another new series on BBC2 – it's that time of the year – The Bear Family and Me, in which cameraman Gordon Buchanan spent a year with a family of black bears, began with 2.312 million viewers, an 8.2% share, between 9pm and 10pm.

ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY! ACTUALLY, IT GOT RATHER MORE THAN THAT

The darts was the most popular multichannel programme of the day, beating BBC4's The Secret Life of Bob Monkhouse into second place. The Monkhouse documentary, which tapped into the comic's treasure trove of 50,000 VHS tapes, averaged 801,000 viewers, a 3% share, between 9pm and 10.30pm.

BIG FAT AUDIENCE (FOR CHANNEL 4)

Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2010, Channel 4, 9.30pm – after a lacklustre festive period in which Channel 4 avoided going head to head with the other channel's big guns, Channel 4 saved its ratings banker for the final bank holiday of the season.

Big Fat Quiz of the Year, hosted by Jimmy Carr and featuring Jonathan Ross and Michael McIntyre, averaged 2.667 million viewers, a 12.9% share, between 9.30pm and 11.35pm, with another 400,000 viewers on Channel 4 +1.

Channel 5's peaktime schedule embraced a pair of movie repeats, with Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and Jean-Claude Van Damme film Until Death averaging 607,000 viewers (2.1%) and 712,000 viewers (4.4%) at 8.05pm and 10pm respectively.

Channel 5's biggest rating of the day was another film repeat, Ryan's Daughter, which had 764,000 viewers, a 5% share, between 2pm and 5.30pm.

EASTENDERS BREAKS 10 MILLION, CORRIE TOPS 11 MILLION

ITV1's Coronation Street also broke the 10 million mark for its 8.30pm edition, while the 7.30pm Monday show averaged more than 11 million.

The 7.30pm edition had 10.491 million (37.8%) on ITV1, with another 605,000 for the ITV1 HD simulcast. The 8.30pm instalment had 10.273 million (35.2%) on ITV1, plus 603,000 on ITV1 HD.

All ratings are Barb overnight figures, including live and same day timeshifted (recorded) viewing, but excluding on demand, +1 or other – unless otherwise stated. Figures for BBC1, ITV1, Channel 4 and Channel 5 generally include ratings for their HD simulcast services, unless otherwise stated

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